More winter weather; snow and sleet will be followed by high wind

Old Man Winter returned to Franklin County Wednesday with snow and ice. Snow began falling Wednesday morning and continued through the afternoon, followed by sleet and freezing rain which left a layer of ice over the snow in many parts of the county.

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By From staff and wire reports

Waynesboro Record Herald - Waynesboro, PA

By From staff and wire reports

Posted Dec. 27, 2012 at 12:15 PM

By From staff and wire reports

Posted Dec. 27, 2012 at 12:15 PM

Winter arrived on the calendar last week and is in full force weatherwise this week.

On the heels of snow Christmas Eve, Old Man Winter returned to Franklin County Wednesday with snow and ice.

Snow began falling Wednesday morning and continued through the afternoon, followed by sleet and freezing rain which left a layer of ice over the snow in many parts of the county.

Accumulation totals varied throughout the area, with points west of Interstate 81 and at higher elevations receiving as much as 6 inches.

The National Weather Service in State College predicts more snow for the weekend, although meteorologists aren't yet sure just how much.

"It's really a tough call," said Paul Head, meteorologist. "Saturday is going to be a snowy day, but (the system) is not organized yet."

Head said that much of what has already fallen will melt by the end of the week, especially for areas with south-facing slopes.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for Franklin County today, predicting winds from 15 to 25 mph and gusts up to 50 mph.

Crews were back out at 4 a.m. this morning and the roads are cleared, she said.

She added there are some icy patches on the roads and urged drivers to use caution.

The Borough of Waynesboro declared a snow emergency at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, prohibiting parking on Main and South Potomac streets. The snow emergency was lifted at 8 a.m. Thursday morning.

On the road

The Franklin County Department of Emergency Services reported more than 30 accidents because of the weather.

"Thirty (accidents) in a day is not typical," a spokesman for the department said. "If it's a dry road, I don't think a lot of those accidents would happen."

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation reduced speeds on major highways, including Interstate 81, to 45 mph around 1 p.m. Wednesday. The speed reduction was lifted at midnight.

Larry McClain and John Crider, each driving a mobile construction crane from Manitowoc in Shady Grove, traveled only 15 miles before snow forced them off the highway and into a McDonald's in Hagerstown. The vehicles aren't permitted to travel in snow.

They planned to spend the night in a motel before resuming the trip south. Crider was headed for Oklahoma City and McClain for Corpus Christi, Texas.

"We were hoping they would have told us to stay at home today but they thought maybe we could get south and beat the storm — but we didn't do it," McClain said.

Page 2 of 3 - Moving on

The storm was expected to drop one to two feet of snow on parts of the Northeast just a day after it swept through the nation's middle, dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas and ruining holiday travel plans for thousands.

The storm, which was blamed for six deaths, pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and made its way into the Northeast Wednesday night. Within hours, there was anywhere from a few inches of snow to a dozen in some locations.

National Weather Service spokesman David Roth said the Northeast's heaviest snowfall would be in northern Pennsylvania, upstate New York and inland sections of several New England states before the storm ended Friday morning and headed to Canada.

Little or no accumulation was expected in the East Coast's largest cities: New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Other areas were to get a messy mix of rain and snow or just rain — enough to slow down commuters and those still heading home from visits with family.

In the wake

Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed on Wednesday and scores of motorists got stuck on icy roads or slid into drifts. Said John Kwiatkowski, an Indianapolis-based meteorologist with the weather service: "The way I've been describing it is as a low-end blizzard, but that's sort of like saying a small Tyrannosaurus rex."

The storm system spawned Gulf Coast region tornadoes on Christmas Day, startling people like Bob and Sherry Sims of Mobile, Alabama, who'd just finished dinner.

"We heard that very distinct sound, like a freight train," said Bob Sims. They headed for a center bathroom.

Power was still out at the Sims' home on Wednesday, but the house wasn't damaged and they used a generator to run heaters to stay warm. Some neighbors were less fortunate, their roofs peeled away and porches smashed by falling trees.

The storm also left freezing temperatures in its aftermath, and forecasters said parts of the Southeast from Virginia to Florida saw severe thunderstorms.

Schools on break and workers taking holiday vacations meant that many people could avoid messy commutes, but those who had to travel were urged to avoid it. Snow was blamed for scores of vehicle accidents as far east as Maryland, and about two dozen counties in Indiana and Ohio issued snow emergency travel alerts, urging people to go out on the roads only if necessary.

Slick roads

About 40 vehicles got bogged down trying to make it up a slick hill in central Indiana, and four state snowplows slid off roads as snow fell at the rate of 3 inches an hour in some places.

Two passengers in a car on a sleet-slickened Arkansas highway were killed Wednesday in a head-on collision, and two people, including a 76-year-old Milwaukee woman, were killed Tuesday on Oklahoma highways. Deaths from wind-toppled trees were reported in Texas and Louisiana.

Page 3 of 3 - The day after Christmas wasn't expected to be particularly busy for AAA, but its Cincinnati-area branch had its busiest Wednesday of the year. By mid-afternoon, nearly 400 members had been helped with tows, jump starts and other aid, with calls still coming in, spokesman Mike Mills said.

More than 1,600 flights were canceled, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.com, and some airlines said they would waive change fees. By early Thursday only minor delays were reported.

In Arkansas, some of the nearly 200,000 people who lost power could be without it for as long as a week because of snapped poles and wires after ice and 10 inches of snow coated power lines, said the state's largest utility, Entergy Arkansas.

Gov. Mike Beebe, who declared a statewide emergency, sent out National Guard teams, and Humvees transported medical workers and patients. Snow hadn't fallen in Little Rock on Christmas since 1926, but the capital ended Tuesday with 10.3 inches of it.